The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today said the Government’s endeavour is to make the country slum-free through the Rajiv Awas Yojana scheme and empowering slum dwellers with house ownership.
“We have taken a major step for our poor brothers and sisters living in cities. We have approved the Rajiv Awas Yojana. We want to make India slum-free through this scheme,” the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said in his Independence Day address to the nation here.
RAY, the UPA-II’s flagship programme, envisages a slum-free India where every slum dweller and urban poor will have access to basic civic and social services and decent shelter.
“We want the slum dwellers to get ownership of clean houses and have access to basic amenities such as water and electricity. We will implement the Rajiv Awas Yojana as a national mission together with the states,” the Prime Minister said from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the launch of Phase I of RAY in June to provide financial assistance to States willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers, for the provision of shelter and basic civic and social services for slum redevelopment and for the creation of affordable housing stock.
According to an estimate by the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry, about 93.06 million people will live in slums in the cities by next year.